Canberra-based Bangladeshi artists perform at National Folk Festival in Australia

With the theme -- "Find your home, find your family, find your folk" -- the 30th National Folk Festival began in Canberra, Australia on Thursday.

The festival could not be organised in the last two years due to the pandemic, said a press release.

This year, a Canberra-based group is presenting Bangladeshi folk songs for the very first time. The group of seven performers called "Bangladeshi folk group" consists of artists of various age groups.

They performed at the start of daylong programme on April 15. Their 30 minutes performance included songs from Lalon Shah and Shah Abdul Karim, etc.

Their performance started with "tak dum tak dum" to match with the theme "find your home". They also presented this year's festival song "My island home" in Bangla and the local aboriginal Ngunnawal language.

The artists received several positive feedback from the audience after their performance. Many appreciated the Baul songs and their deep mystic meaning.

The Bangladeshi folk group comes with the mission to exchange the folk culture, music and themes between Bangladesh and Australia. This event was a great opportunity to showcase the century-old songs and convey the deeper meaning and strong background.

National Folk Festival in Australia came to live 55 years ago as Port Phillip district folk music festival. In its early years, it was held in different states of Australia. In 1992, it got its permanent venue in Australian capital Canberra. Since then, it is held every year during Easter weekend.